


Oi! Harry!

by QueenOfSkaro



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fred is a sweetheart, M/M, Tri Wizard Tournament, Yule Ball, ron is a good friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-29 02:13:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8471647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfSkaro/pseuds/QueenOfSkaro
Summary: It could have been a quiet, normal evening, until Fred and George came around.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Everything about the Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling.  
> I took huge portions of the dialogue out of the book, but I don't make any Money with it.  
> It's still hers. Even though I'd like to have them all to myself.

„Because George wants to invite him to the ball.“, said Fred sarcastically.  
That was,of course, only a joke. About an owl, no less, but the sentence still rang something in Harrys mind. Namely, the ball he was forced to attend, with a partner he still didn’t have, just waiting to embarrass himself and them with his sorry excuses for dancing. 

‚-invite him-‘, repeated in his head and for a second that seemed to actually be an option. Not the him Fred was referring to, obviously, but another him, him who brought it up, maybe, or –

Then it was over and he woke up from his little daydream of unspoken issues he always shoved to the back of his head in the immense desire not to have to deal with it on top of the giant cake that was his life now. 

“Because we want to send a letter, you stupid great prat,” said George and Harry found himself grinning. Why else would they want the feathery whirlwind?  
“Who d’you two keep writing to, eh?” said Ron, as if he actually thought he would get a straight answer out of them.

“Nose out, Ron, or I’ll burn that for you too,”said Fred, waving his wand threateningly, a wicked grin on his face which shouldn’t look half as charming as it did. At least for Harry. Harry shouldn’t find it charming at all, and yet …  
“So … you lot got dates yet?” Fred asked and that was exactly the topic the fourth year didn’t want to talk about, thank you very much. He kept his mouth shut with a hard bite on his tongue.

“Nope,” said Ron, answering for both of them and Harry was content to leave it at that.  
“Well, you’d better hurry up, mate, or all the good ones will be gone,” said Fred, throwing the Potter a side-eye, probably to involve him in the conversation he didn’t want to have a part in.

“Who’re you going with, then? You’ve already asked someone?” Ron challenged. They would have heard of it if Fred already had a date and the youngest Weasley brother obviously knew that.   
“Good point,” Fred said and if Harry was a little relieved by it it was only his to know. The relief would be short felt, of course, because Fred wouldn’t stay without a date for long, but he would take what he could get. 

“Oi! Harry!”, he called out, causing the younger to choke on his spit as he scrambled in what he hoped was a pose that didn’t make him look like a total loser.  
“What?” he asked more breathless than he’d like to admit. Surely it could not be – his fantasy was always going to be his downfall, like that time he told Aunt Petunia about the dancing flowers in her back garden and she back-handed him hard enough to give him a nose-bleed. He should have learned his lesson then, but obviously he didn’t. It was a Potter-trait he heard a lot about. God-damned stubborness.

“Want to come to the ball with me?”  
Harry gave Fred a shell-shocked sort of look.   
“Come – what?”, he choked out like a hairball into the equally stunned silence of their group. If it made Fred nervous in any way he was great at hiding it.   
“Do you want to come to the ball with me?” he repeated slowly with a slight smile, merely hinted in the corners of his mouth and Harry had fantasies about that mouth, lots of them actually which kept him awake a couple of nights. 

It was a joke, it had to be. Because if not Harrys head would probably explode and if it was then it was only his measly little teenager heart. If it was, then it meant Fred knew about his ridiculous little crush and treated it like he treated everything else. With a laugh and a whole lot of making fun. 

He could only lose if he kept quietly staring at the twin with bewilderment, watching a frown make its way onto the freckled face and the fourth year could almost hear him backtrack already, so with a split second decision he gave Fred more power than he wanted anyone to have over him.

“All right, then,” he said, eyes wide and unblinking and hands clenched with his fingernails digging into the palms.  
“All right, then,” Fred said, blinding smile showing rows of white teeth. Not a joke, then. How could it not be a joke? Harry wasn’t sure, couldn’t even fathom to grasp one of the million thoughts racing on broomsticks through his head.

“There you go,” said Fred to Ron, whose jaw had dropped somewhere onto his chest, “piece of cake.”  
He got to his feet, yawning, and said, “We’d better use a school owl then, George, come on.”  
Before they left, though, he bend down eye-level to Harry and gently rubbed their noses together for a second.

“We’ll talk later, okay? When you get your head around it and stop staring at me, waiting for the other shoe to drop.” Fred grinned and, with a last nose-rub, left the tower, his brother in toe.

Harry looked over the smoldering wreck of a card castle to his best friend, who still managed to look utterly surprised even without his eyebrows. Nervousness gripped him.  
“You’re okay with that, right?” Harry got out in a sudden rush. He only got his friend back, the thought of losing him again so soon twisted his stomach into knots. At the time Fred asked him he couldn’t think as far as this, but now he asked himself if maybe he shouldn’t have reacted differently. 

There was motion in the redheads face at last, leaving the shock behind, the features rushed through confusion, anger, caution before at last settling on joy.  
“Oi, mate. That means you’ll basically be my brother, right? Blimey, that’s brilliant. Wait until mom hears about it, she always wanted to adopt you.”, Ron exclaimed.

Which was about the last thing Harry suspected would happen once Ron heard of him crushing on his brother. An exchanged look with Hermione later he knew he wasn’t the only one thinking about bad outcomes. A grin so wide it hurt spread over his face.

Not only has he got a date for the yule ball he actually liked and enjoyed spending time with, he didn’t lose his best friend about it either. He outflew a dragon and most of the school didn’t hate him anymore. 

Life was looking up.

Grin softening to an equally happy smile he stroked a finger over the bridge of his nose, eyes closing for a second.

Yes. Life was definitely looking up.


End file.
